Medical Home

Medical Home

The medical home, also known as the patient-centered medical home (PCMH), is a team based health care delivery model led by a physician, P.A., or N.P. that provides comprehensive and continuous medical care to patients with the goal of obtaining maximized health outcomes (American College of Physicians) (American Academy of Family Physicians). It is "an approach to providing comprehensive primary care for children, youth and adults". The provision of medical homes may allow better access to health care, increase satisfaction with care, and improve health. Joint principles that define a PCMH have been established through the cohesive efforts of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American College of Physicians (ACP), and American Osteopathic Association (AOA). (Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative) Care coordination is an essential component of the PCMH. Care coordination requires additional resources such as health information technology, and appropriately trained staff to provide coordinated care through team-based models. Additionally, payment models that compensate PCMHs for their effort devoted to care coordination activities and patient-centered care management that fall outside the face-face patient encounter may help encourage coordination (Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative) (National Academy of Sciences, 1996).


Read more about Medical Home:  History, Scientific Evidence, International Comparisons, Ongoing Medical Home Projects, Projects Evaluating Medical Home Concepts, The Role of PCMH and Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) in The Coordination of Patient Care

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